Setup your computer for CPAN-PRC
Earlier I wrote about why should you join CPAN Pull Request Challenge. Now I will explain how to get your computer ready to work on your assignment. You can grab a Docker image and start hacking right away, or you can install everything you need on your computer.
Option 1: The Docker Way
By using a Docker image that has everything you need, you can start working in minutes.
1: Install Docker
On Ubuntu:
$ sudo apt-get install docker.io
Alternatively, see the instructions for macOS and Windows.
2: Fork & clone the repo
Now you need to fork and clone the Github repository you were assigned for the PRC. For example, I created this fork, and can clone it with:
$ git clone https://github.com/kyzn/App-p ~/Desktop/App-p
3: Run Docker
I have prepared a docker image which comes with a stable version of Perl, perlbrew, cpanm and dzil, all pre-installed.
Here’s how I would run docker on the repo I cloned in step 3:
$ docker run -v ~/Desktop/App-p:/App-p -it kyzn/perlbrew-prc
Where:
~/Desktop/App-p
is the local path to the repo/App-p
is the path of the directory inside the Docker image
This will launch an Ubuntu image as root user, mounting the repository to /App-p
. Git is installed, but you need to use your local (non-Docker) terminal to pull/push. The text editors nano, vim, and emacs are installed in the image as well. You can also use your local text editor.
Building a Docker Image
Alternatively, you can build the docker image by hand. Note that this will take some time:
$ git clone https://github.com/kyzn/perlbrew-prc-dockerimage
$ cd perlbrew-prc-dockerimage
$ docker build -t kyzn/perlbrew-prc:my_build .
Then use the same docker run
command with your own my_build
tag.
Option 2: The Local Way
You can install the same tools to your computer; I’ve prepared instructions for macOS and Ubuntu. This usually takes about one to two hours.
Notes for macOS users
Perl, during its installation, will ask for permission for incoming network connections. Denying that request doesn’t break anything for CPAN-PRC purposes.
Installing modules via cpanm
might give you a permission error. In the terminal, run:
$ sudo chown -R $USER:staff ~/.cpanm
This command changes the owner of the cpanm folder, which usually fixes the issue.
You need to install homebrew:
$ ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
1: Install Perlbrew
Most systems come with a certain version of Perl installed. Yet it is often recommended not to tamper system Perl, as applications depend on its state. That’s why we want to install a separate Perl for development purposes.
$ curl -L https://install.perlbrew.pl | bash
Once it’s done, it will ask you to add source ~/perl5/perlbrew/etc/bashrc
to your ~/.bashrc
. You should do as instructed right away.
2: Install Perl
Now that we have Perlbrew in place, we can go ahead and install a Perl on our own, keeping system Perl alone. I am going to suggest installing latest stable-version. You may run perlbrew available
to see most common versions. Note that this will take a while.
$ perlbrew install -j 4 stable
There are two ways to use a Perl version with Perlbrew: use
and switch
. use
is temporary, it goes away once you close the terminal. That’s why I recommend switch
, which will make it permanent. Change the version to the one you just installed. You can run perlbrew list
to see installed versions.
$ perlbrew switch $(perlbrew list)
To make sure switch worked, check your Perl version in the terminal:
$ perl -v
3: Install cpanm
This is a script that will help you install CPAN modules. There already is a client installed, called cpan
. But, cpan
requires configuration and is more verbose and slower than cpanm
.
$ perlbrew install-cpanm
To be sure you’re using the perlbrew installed cpanm, run this command:
$ which cpanm | grep perlbrew
If the terminal displays any matching output, it worked.
4: Install dzil
Many CPAN authors use dzil to build and release their modules. The chances of your PRC assignment having a dist.ini file (dzil configuration) are high.
First you need to install a non-Perl dependency, openssl. On macOS:
$ brew install openssl
And on Ubuntu:
$ sudo apt-get install libssl-dev
Then install Dist::Zilla with cpanm. Note that this will take a while, as it has a lot of dependencies.
$ cpanm Dist::Zilla
5: Install reply (optional)
reply
is a nice interactive shell that lets you play around.
Ubuntu users will need to install these missing dependencies:
$ sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev libreadline-dev
Now install reply
:
$ cpanm Term::ReadLine::Gnu Reply
Now you are ready to work on your assignment! Good luck!
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Kivanc Yazan
Kivanc is a software engineer at ZipRecruiter. He is interested in Semantic Web, Social Networks and CS Education. He regularly blogs about programming and computers.
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